Yeah, I know. I know. I said yesterday that I would write a post about my health. Well, it is now today (yesterday’s tomorrow, in case anyone is interested) and I am finally getting around to another post about my health.

Over the years I have struggled with a lot of physical problems. If I had to take a guess, I would say part of it was the result of years of stress working at Cochran Center (a now defunct chemical dependency program) under a supervisor who was beyond toxic as well as some accidents and the lack of health insurance at various times in my life over the last 8 years. Normally I do not write about work, but this was from years ago, so I think it is safe to write about the horrible conditions I worked under back then.

Anyway, my supervisor was a woman shaped like Mike Wazowski from “Monsters Inc.” She was diabetic and did not manage it well. Towards the end of my employment I would witness her decide to take extra insulin because she had eaten food that was not good for a diabetic to eat. As a result her already considerable weight ballooned. That caused problems with her back. I used to watch as she went up the short six steps inside the entrance to our building sideways, grasping the rail with both hands.

Well, that is not what was difficult about her, though it certainly added to her nasty demeanor. It was her quick desire to discharge my clients because they were irritating her. Now, I do know that because of her constant challenges for kicking out clients I became a better advocate for them. But it came with a price: constant worry as to what her mood was, and which client I was going to have to defend each day. And this went on for 9 years.

Well, another problem also came up, which I will not openly discuss, but let me just say it was something I could not put up with, but I did not have the courage to confront. In the end it cost me my job in 2005, a job that I had held for 9 years. That followed many years in the wilderness of being unemployed, under-employed, and just not happy with the jobs I did land. Oh, and a month after being fired? She had a stroke and never worked again.

It was during this time that my health started going to hell. First, I gained a lot of weight. That followed with an effort at weight loss by biking (hence the world famous Tour De Rook!). Unfortunately, I did not know that improper bike seats can cause problems. I was finding myself experiencing numbness in my left leg, and gradually some pain in the small of my back. Further, in 2008 I landed on my tail bone, doing some serious damage that left me out of work for 2 or 3 months. I also ended up with some type of infection in either my sinuses or my throat. It is hard for me to know because I was without insurance at the time of those infections.

As far as the back issue, that has been getting steadily better. One, I finally bought a new seat, one that I sized by having my pelvic bones in my butt measured. Now my legs do not get numb. Nor is my back acting up as much. Oh, and having insurance and being able to go to the chiropractor helped as well!

Well, this past week the sinus issues really came to a head. Thankfully I went to an ENT (ears, nose, throat) specialist and was prescribed an antibiotic/saline nasal rinse. Its purpose is to battle the bacterial infection causing the horrible post nasal drip. I was gagging just about every morning due to that problem. It has been 3 days since I started that treatment (4 times a day!) and already I can feel a dramatic improvement. No more post nasal drip, I breath better at night, which means I am sleeping better as well! Oh happy days!

Still, I have a CT scan coming up to see what else is wrong with my sinuses. And I have to do that rinse for the next three weeks! It is not that hard to actually do, but man does it taste nasty! I get a little of it dripping down to the back of my throat. Nasty! But it is worth it, I’m feeling better!